<\/p>\n
At the end of the day, a job is a job. Whether you\u2019re flipping burgers or penning the theme to Star Wars<\/i>, there\u2019s always something better out there. Just ask 93-year-old John Williams, widely considered the greatest composer of film scores who ever lived, and who admits in a new biography, \u201cI never liked film music very much.\u201d Imagine how good the score to Harry Potter<\/i> or Schindler\u2019s List<\/i> would be if he did. \u201cFilm music, however good it can be\u2014and it usually isn\u2019t, other than an eight-minute stretch here and there,\u201d the five-time Oscar-winning composer of the theme to Jaws<\/i> continues. \u201cI just think the music isn\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Per The Guardian<\/i><\/a>, biographer Tim Greiving, whose John Williams: A Composer\u2019s Life<\/i> will be published in September, was shocked to find out that Williams considered his life\u2019s work \u201cjust a job.\u201d However, he tempers that by saying we shouldn\u2019t take Williams\u2019 words at face value. Williams, he says, took the job of composing film music \u201cas seriously as anyone in history ever has.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe has this internalized prejudice against film music,\u201d Greiving said. \u201cIt\u2019s a functional type of music, which is funny because I consider his film music to be kind of sublime art at its best. That\u2019s not modesty. He\u2019s just saying it\u2019s a lesser art form. Typically, that is true, though. It is written much quicker and much more economically. But I do think his music defies that. He perfected the art of film scoring. He took it to its greatest heights. He elevated film music to a high art form.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Williams, if the composer could do it all over again, he would\u2019ve made \u201ca cleaner job of [\u2026] having the film music and the concert music all being more me.\u201d Unfortunately, that\u2019s not how it happened. \u201cThe film thing was a job to do, or an opportunity to accept.\u201d<\/p>\n This is hardly the first time Mr. Williams has been dismissive toward his work. Back in 2016<\/a>, he hand-waved away any lingering cultural memory toward his\u00a0Star Wars\u00a0<\/em>work. \u201cI don\u2019t know. A lot of them \u200bare \u200bnot very memorable and so on,\u201d he said of an oeuvre containing some of the most beloved film music ever recorded. \u201cIt\u2019s probably the most popular music that I\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n